The following is excerpted from the Deseret News and was contributed by Hanna Seariac. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Where some saw comedy in the hit movie “Julie & Julia,” I saw a challenge.
The film details Julie Powell’s culinary journey. Powell determines to cook and blog every recipe of Julia Child’s famous cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Now unlike Powell, I deigned not to touch a live lobster and couldn’t locate a grocery store that stocks mutton and goose.
Becoming something of a Latter-day Saint Julie Powell suited me, as a resident funeral potatoes connoisseur.
Julie Badger Jensen is the author behind “The Essential Mormon Cookbook.” She compiled dozens of recipes and said in the book that when she was 8 years old, she began collecting recipes beginning with a Lovable Lime Jell-O. I was positively smitten with Jensen’s writing style, which is cheery at every corner and enthusiastic about having family meals as a tradition.
“People’s lives are very involved with all kinds of schedules, but I think the family meal is a wonderful tradition that’s well worth keeping,” Jensen told the Deseret News in 2004.
With more than 200 recipes, I had my work cut out for me. As an eclectic home chef, I hardly discipline myself to follow recipes exactly, something this challenge demanded of me. I forged ahead by meticulously documenting my experience cooking each dish.
The staples of Latter-day Saint cooking were heavily represented. Potatoes. Cheese. Butter. But other flavors were present. Through cooking my way through the cookbook, I believe that I learned what Latter-day Saint cuisine looks like in a more complex way than I had before.
What I learned about Latter-day Saint cuisine
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
